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The Integration of ShoreTel and Microsoft Lync

At ShoreTel, the only thing that matters to us is to be close to our customers, and prospective new customers - especially those that are using Microsoft Lync for instant messaging and presence.

Even though Microsoft Lync offers a voice capability that competes against ShoreTel, we’re finding most customers prefer to have the best of both worlds. They want the power of Microsoft Lync on the desktop, and ShoreTel providing the business communication system all integrated as one single solution in the eyes of the end users, making the combination of Microsoft Lync and ShoreTel as the answer of choice by many businesses.

Bringing Experience with Over 3,000,000 users to Your Business

ShoreTel’s latest release 14.2 incorporates the feedback and innovation from serving more than 30,000 businesses in over 60 countries. We make it all brilliantly simple. No third-party gateways. No phones to test – they just work out of the box, and are automatically recognized on the network.

Adding ShoreTel to Microsoft Lync, is just as easy as deploying ShoreTel without needing additional IT staff to make it happen. Nemertes Research most recent study of live production customers found Microsoft Lync deployments took more than twice the IT staff. That’s twice the cost of people, who you’d likely rather have focused on strategic applications that serve customers. With ShoreTel, we make that a reality.

Just like at Brown and Caldwell, a professional services firm with more than 1,000 employees in the San Francisco bay area. They integrated ShoreTel with their Microsoft solutions, and found they would have had to increase their already Microsoft literate IT staff with additional members to support Microsoft Lync for voice applications. They made the move to ShoreTel years ago, and save hundreds of thousands of dollar by using our applications.

ShoreTel Has Had Microsoft on Our Resume From The Beginning

We’ve had a long history of empowering users of Microsoft applications for years. Best of all, we have a great innovation partner network of technology providers that bring tremendous value added solutions to the table. For integration with Microsoft Lync, we partner with iLink, a leading system integrations firm which enables ShoreTel and Microsoft Lync solutions to work together seamlessly.

Once integrated with the ShoreTel UC system via the ShoreTel CSTA Server, the Microsoft UC client can control any ShoreTel telephone, just by telephone calls by clicking on the contact name. Incoming calls with also pop up the Lync record. A Lync user can also display telephony presence in addition to instant messaging (IM) status to all their contacts, so they know if you’re on the phone, including those in outside organizations federated with them. Want to know when the person you need is off the phone? RCC-enabled Lync users can now “pin” their contacts and call them as soon as they receive notification that they have become available.

It’s all about having an open communication system by ShoreTel with interfaces to third-party solutions. That can be an application like Microsoft Dynamics which automatically open customer records upon an incoming call, resulting in faster response time and superior service. It could be back office systems such as Microsoft Active Directory, which manages the user credentials for our ShoreTel Mobility application. Delete the AD credentials and the user is automatically disabled. Why stop there? How about using our Web Dialer to click on a phone number in Microsoft Internet Explorer, and have your ShoreTel phone go off hook and dial the number.

One Plus One is One

You would think two companies, Microsoft and ShoreTel, would have one solution for customers. And you would be right. From a user’s perspective, it’s all one integrated solution. From an IT perspective, it’s easy to implement just like any of the other IT resources, but we eliminate the complexity of deploying Microsoft Lync for voice. With ShoreTel, there are no third-party gateways to install, or third-party phones to have to download a CAB file from a server and test and see if it works, or a dozen servers to install applications to get it to work.

Say goodbye to that complexity. From a financial perspective, ShoreTel has a much lower total cost of ownership, resulting from the reduced staffing costs and licensing renewal fees. The top management will appreciate that the people and dollars saved can be put on the projects that help companies meet their strategic goals.